C-Drama Review: You Are My Glory

So I was reluctant to watch this despite hearing really great things about it as modern day c-dramas aren't really for me. Not sure what it is but I think I find them often too cheesy, King's Avatar is actually the only modern day c-drama I've been able to watch from start to finish without dropping. So you can see I don't usually watch these but decided to give this one a chance. 

It's about an aerospace engineer (Yu Tu) and an actress (Qiao Jing Jing) that knew each other from high school but never got together and then only got to know each other more when they were 29/30 as pretty established in their careers. The reason they get together again is because of a mobile game that Jing Jing wants to get better at because of an endorsement deal and Yu Tu just happens to be amazing at the game so as a result he becomes her coach in the lead up to some public event where she has to play the game in front of people. They fall in love through that but that stuff aside, you can kind of guess the type of struggles they will face once they become an item, as on paper, they lead different lifestyles because of their jobs but over the course of this drama you see them become each other's inspiration to want to do better and follow their dreams. I was initially put off because of the gaming element (funny I say that because King's Avatar was allllll about the gaming and e-sports) BUT if you're reading this thinking the same, fear not, the gaming stuff only goes on for about half of the drama then eventually dies away as they get into a relationship.

What I liked about the drama

• Casting - Yang Yang and Dilraba were perfect for their roles as Yu Tu and Jing Jing IMO, you can't find a better looking pair for this drama if you're into eye candy and watch dramas for superficial reasons like me.
• Story - I actually really liked this story, of course, there were really cheesy moments that made me cringe a little but at the same time, I quite liked how it's unconventional in the sense that there's no third party bitch trying to break up the main couple, there's no secondary male involved, no love triangles, no other pairing, it's just simply about Yu Tu and Jing Jing. The story carries its own weight focusing on these two and the realistic struggles of working in two very different careers and how they still make time for each other to make it work.
• The matureness factor - so related to the above, this story is mature, it's not about two high schoolers falling in love, it's about two 30 year olds falling in love and you get to see things like how they think very deeply about each other and the relationship rather than just getting into it, you see real passion for each other, the longing and you even get BED SCENES. Yes guys, bed scenes (no nakedness unfortunately but you do get to see Yang Yang's back in one of the later episodes LOL). These two are real adults and even sleep over at each others' places before marriage (usually frowned upon in Chinese culture fyi) - I'm all here for it.

What I didn't like so much 

Potentially unpopular opinions but...

• Unnecessary / OTT intimacy - ok yes intimacy is expected in romance dramas to an extent so this may be a minor point but there was just a bit tooooo much random kissing in the second half of the drama, it was nice to see at the start but was a bit OTT towards the end.
• Yu Tu when he's 38 - maybe this is more about Yang Yang's acting but was it just me or was YY trying too hard in the last timeskip when he's 38? His dialogue sounded like he was constantly out of breath as if he's trying to play a character that looks 30 but has the voice of a 60 year old. 
• The disappearance of the ex-girlfriend and ex-boyfriend - so earlier in the drama, maybe around episode 19-20 there's a scene with Yu Tu's ex-girlfriend and Jing Jing's ex-boyfriend where they basically both shut them down after they try come back but then we just don't ever see them again for the rest of the drama. I know I mentioned I liked the fact that there were no rivals or love triangles but just feels a bit odd for them to have made an appearance at the beginning and then disappeared for the rest of the drama. Even a scene to show that they eventually moved on would've been nice and more complete.
• The wedding - was underwhelming, I know it's supposed to be understated as they had a group wedding (I didn't even know those existed) but it felt so fragmented and insignificant as a scene, like you go from someone recognising Yu Tu and Jing Jing in the waiting room, to them running away to the actual place where the wedding is going to take place, to them imagining what it's going to be like, to them kissing and then they're married? 
• The ending - personal opinion but would've loved to see if they had kids etc in maybe one last time skip. To me, it ended rather abruptly and randomly with the Search For God project having completed then Jing Jing saying she's proud of Yu Tu, then they walk away to the after party - drama ends. Perhaps the point is that Jing Jing supported Yu Tu all the way to him becoming a successful aerospace engineer and the completion of this project was due to Jing Jing cheering him on and not letting him give up.

Overall, I really enjoyed this drama, it really does live up to the hype and exceeded my original expectations so I've scored this an 8/10. 

C-Drama Review: Who Rules The World

 

I've developed an unhealthy obsession with Yang Yang after this drama LOL, more specifically, Yang Yang in wuxia. 

ANYWAY- this isn't the first drama I've seen with Yang Yang as the ML, I watched King's Avatar a long time ago and although gaming dramas aren't for me, he was great in it so I was kind of excited for this. Zhao Lusi as the FL as well, having seen her in 'Romance of the Tiger and Rose' and 'Oh My Emperor' (before I dropped it b/c the plot was just ridiculous), I was more used to seeing her in those kind of comedy-historical type roles and this is the first serious role I've seen her in so was excited to see that too.

In a nutshell, WRTW for me was one of those dramas that fell short in so many ways but I kept watching because of the ML and FL and the chemistry between them, they pretty much saved the drama for me otherwise I would have probably dropped it. In terms of romance, this drama was right up my street but in terms of actual plot, it was a bit shite to be honest.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I could write forever about this drama but I'm just going to summarise:

What I actually liked about it:

First 15-20 episodes were good, I loved seeing the relationship between Hei Fengxi/Lanxi and Bai Fengxi/Xiyan develop from friendly rivals in the martial arts world to feeling an attachment and falling in love with each other despite both being so different and from different backgrounds despite both between Prince and Princess of different nations. 

The plot being focused around Lanxi hiding his identity under HFX was also interesting as he was heavily involved in a power struggle between him and his younger brother over who gets the title of being heir to the throne. You can tell from the way he secretly learnt martial arts and built a network of intelligence/spies under his alias meant that his life growing up was always in danger, given that his mother died of poisoning so he had to watch his own back and get revenge. 

Although most of the plot turned into utter garbage as it developed in the second half (more on that later), I really liked the fact that although he originally set out to become powerful and rule the world, as soon as he met BFX and fell in love with her, that no longer became important. Despite everything, he chose love, even to the point where he sacrificed years of his life in exchange for saving her accepting that he would only be able to spend 10 more years of his life with her if it meant she could live. 

What fell short for me:

Ok so here's where the list of problems start...

The plot somewhat changed in the second half of this drama, you come to think that the evil people are Lanxi's younger brother and his mother and then maybe come to think Huang Chao is the evil one as he's also after the role of emperor to rule the world. BUT NO, the actual evil guy is someone that has appeared since the beginning - Yu Wuyuan. I actually HATED the fact that he somehow crawled out of the woodwork to become the evil guy when you're made to believe he's actually a good guy. The fact of the plot is that he manipulated everyone around him and secretly killed everyone and took their resources and then even killed the emperor at the end to be able to rule the world himself. Throughout the drama, he was living in disguise as Huang Chao's aide/advisor, then fast forward to the last few episodes when they realise he's been behind everything all along and then even Huang Chao must team up with HFX and BFX to take him down. Honestly, this part was so dumb and what was supposed to be a plot twist was executed quite badly. Even the fight scene at the end was so dumb, it was 3 vs 1 and he got taken down so easily.

Also, I get there's this power struggle between brothers but I also found it ridiculous for Fengju to even be challenging Lanxi in the first place, even knowing the connections he's built, his martial arts skills etc. Yes, there was a part where their father found out that Lanxi had been hiding all this from him and then made him take that wine that kills off his internal force but still, it was incredibly ambitious of Fengju and his mother to try and then even have the guts to stage a coup eventually without expecting Lanxi to come in and stop it. Lanxi slapping the shit out of Fengju when his coup fails was quite lol though.

Now let's talk about their father - this guy is actually crazy, time after time in this drama you see Fengju and his mother run rampant with their little schemes and plots and even the king knows that his wife is after making Fengju the heir over Lanxi. So many times you see this guy forgive his wife for all her stupid schemes and tricks that fall through yet HE NEVER DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Then he is actually surprised when the coup happens and acts like he's been so betrayed and lied to - if your wife has the guts to be scheming and harming other people, what makes you think she wouldn't do it to you eventually. I honestly felt so sorry for Lanxi in this drama, he is forever protecting himself and his father yet his father just sees it as if he's after power and therefore tries to cripple him, thank god Lanxi got his powers back at the end because if he didn't, the king would've shot himself in the foot with that one. 

I hate to be complaining about this but it needs mentioning, BFX is supposed to be as intelligent as HFX but more times than not, she finds herself in these positions where she needs saving, 2 of those instances where she basically died and HFX had to bring her back to life. I wish they actually created her character to be more equal to HFX rather than the damsel in distress all the time. 

Another one - bad CGI, I don't usually complain about bad CGI in wuxia dramas because it's usually a given, but this one is worth a mention because it was beyond bad. You can watch the final fight scene between Huang Chao, HFX, BFX and Wuyuan to see what I mean - people were flying all over the place and through buildings without actual contact happening, did they run out of budget or something?

Moving onto the ending, the last 10 episodes were possibly the worst, they were just so sped up just to get to the end. Within 5 episodes you have so many things concluding - Fenju and his mother's coup fails, Lanxi becomes heir, HFX and BFX get married, fast forward 5 years, they discover that Wuyuan was the one behind everything, BFX gets herself blown up by cannons, HFX sacrifices his life to save her, they find Wuyuan in the imperial city, they kill him, Lanxi gives up the power to rule the world over to Huang Chao in order to spend the remaining 10 years of his life living simply with BFX. The ending scene was poor as well, the scene ends with them painting each others' eyebrows. 

Honestly, this drama could have been so much more if they extended it out to another 10 episodes and possibly didn't change director halfway through. To me, it started off so well, I was well and truly hooked and then things started dragging, it turned into a bit of a mystery drama and I found myself watching it solely because of HFX and BFX. A drama tends to lose its meaning when you end up watching it for the romance rather than the actual plot. 

I thought long and hard about what score I should give this, I went from 8.5 to a 8/10 which actually seems pretty high despite all the problems I mentioned but Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi really made it enjoyable for me at least despite the shite plot. 

I'm watching 'You Are My Glory' now (continuing my Yang Yang obsession), I don't normally do modern c-dramas let alone dramas about gaming but will give this a try.

C-Drama Review: One and Only

 

Ok guys, so I had really high hopes for this drama. Not only was it recommended to me by my dad (my dad watches Chinese dramas all day everyday now that he's retired so I rely on a lot of his recommendations since he knows what type of Chinese dramas I like!), but it was actually pitched to me as being similar to Goodbye My Princess which I absolutely LOVED! Like I have never watched a drama that I enjoyed so much I wanted to watch it all over again until I watched Goodbye My Princess. It was also pitched to me as something "even more tragic than Goodbye My Princess" so I was like WHAT? more tragic? How? It's also got really high ratings on MDL so I thought, heck, this must be something truly amazing.

This drama was disappointing. I'm actually sad to say that it didn't meet my expectations at all. 

I love a romance drama, throw in some tragedy and actual political drama into the mix and I'm sold. This drama was supposed to be romance but ????? Where was the romance? Where was the confession, hugging, kissing scenes?? Literally I struggled through about 10 episodes of this drama thinking ok, the romance is coming, the romance is coming, I can feel it. 24 episodes later and I feel kind of robbed to say the least. 

*****As always... spoilers ahead*****

This story is about a girl named Shiyi (FL) who becomes the disciple of Jr Prince Nancheng (ML - who is the King's uncle supposedly), he's kind of like a monk character but without the shaved head. By that I mean, back in the day he swore to never get married and never have kids because he wanted to show that he wasn't interested in becoming king. Fair enough. You can already tell that his destiny with Shiyi was doomed from day one (this happens before he even met Shiyi). Fast forward, Shiyi becomes his disciple and eventually close confidant, the two of them strike up some sort of close but I-can't-have-you-nor-should-I-be-with-you type of relationship. Now this is basically the same shit for about 15-18 episodes of this 24 episode epic, the two are close but are never an item. Even more so, there's a political aspect to this story in which Shiyi is actually engaged to the Crown Prince as part of some old agreement between the king and Shiyi's mother to better their family relations with the royal family. The engagement gets called off at some point but the Crown Prince is obsessed with her and strikes up some sort of dirty bargain to get re-engaged to her again later in the series. Shiyi gets shipped off to the royal household and basically becomes prisoner for the Crown Prince who is basically evil and prevents anyone seeing Shiyi. Whilst Shiyi is cut off from all outside communications, the Crown Prince partners with his wife's evil father and they basically trap Prince Nancheng and kill him, this news is barred from Shiyi for about 2 episodes until she eventually finds out from her mother and then - kills herself on her wedding day. 

In terms of tragedy factor, I felt the plot was weak, I personally felt nothing for the relationship between Prince Nancheng and Shiyi, by the time he was murdered by his nephew, I still felt nothing. I actually felt the relationship was very one sided by Shiyi, you could tell she was obsessed with her "master" but I never seemed to get anything back from Prince Nancheng, apart from the way he looks at her. I honestly wasn't there for this relationship from beginning to end and I just felt it was lacking some sort of passion. 

In terms of the political plot, again that was weak af, like the Empress Dowager was an evil bitch from the beginning and she basically wanted to rule with a puppet king, so you get this whole drama of her enthroning these children as king so she could control them and therefore control the court for about 75% of the series. But then obviously these kids grow up and then she gets betrayed and then gets her revenge. The woman even kills her own son. This typical Empress Dowager plot is kind of dry and by the time she gets overthrown by Prince Nancheng and gets sent away to become a nun is kind of the end for her, until she gets killed by some other insignificant villain. Like she tries to recycle the same evil idea twice which makes this even more damning in my books. Then there's the capture and murder of Prince Nancheng, like where did this idea even develop from, all that was mentioned was "you should get rid of him" to the Crown Prince and then next thing you know, it's just so easily executed, Prince Nancheng being the smart, courageous, loyal general that he is, gets trapped and captured then murdered so easily in the space of about 1 episode. I mean...

Then there's the ending, Shiyi's death, her devastation at the thought of marrying her lover's murderer was just too much for her so on her wedding day she climbs up to the top of the building and then jumps off. In the most-classic-not-classic way, the Crown Prince (basically Emperor) is about 0.5 seconds too late to save her from jumping and she dies. She dies in the most non-elaborate way either, no blood, just a soft plop onto the ground.

One thing I will say for anyone reading this is that if you like something different in terms of a romance and if you like subtle romances then you might enjoy this. One other thing is that this drama actually has a part 2 called Forever and Ever (it's currently airing now) and it's basically Prince Nancheng and Shiyi in the present day and from what I heard, it's a lot less tragic as in it's basically the happy ending for both of them but in another life. I quite like how the drama ended where before she died, she hoped that they would meet in another life and be able to get married, then the ending scene pans to this board of writing that Shiyi wrote that was incomplete, I quite liked how that signified that their story is not yet finished and that there would be a part 2 - I found that quite artistic and well done. 

Overall, this drama scored very highly on MDL and is quite popular in China from what I heard, I wouldn't say that this drama was my cup of tea at all. I prefer non-subtle romances, lots of flirting, the confessions, the hugs, the kisses LOL so maybe this is vastly different to what I expected and what I am used to enjoying. 

I would give this drama a 6/10 and not sure if I would watch part 2 of this story in Forever and Ever but maybe I will and perhaps it will change my opinion on One and Only. 

C-Drama Review: The Wolf

 

Like many others, I was attracted to this drama because of Xiao Zhan and Li Qin. I've never seen Darren Wang in anything before so this was new. 

Basic plot summary, the story is about a guy (Darren Wang) that was raised by wolves and then subsequently saved by the king. The king brings him up, teaches him how to talk etc and makes him a Prince as an adopted son. The guy gets reunited with his childhood friend who was his first ever friend (Li Qin), the 2 are in love with each other but lots of drama happens between the two of them. It's a bit of an ill-fated lover story - you know the drill.

My thoughts on the drama... *SPOILERS AHEAD*

SIGH. I don't even know where to begin. It's not a car crash of a drama but then again, it wasn't as great as I hoped it would be. I think I was really hyped for this drama because there was so much anticipation from everyone for this drama's release, there were promos for it since like 2 years ago, then it got delayed because of COVID and when it finally released towards end of 2020/start of 2021, everyone was expecting a lot. To be honest, I think a lot of the hype came because Xiao Zhan is a main character (albeit, not the main male lead). 

Having just finished the drama today, it's been a bit of a slow burn. When I compare to something like Love and Redemption and Goodbye My Princess, it wasn't a drama I was hooked into and powered through all the episodes on. There are a few points I want to touch on in this drama.

Plot / Relationships etc.

The plot was mediocre, from the beginning you knew Prince Bo and Zhaixing were never going to be a happy couple. What I actually disliked the most was this hot and cold feeling that Prince Bo and Zhaixing were giving us. The whole 49 episodes was basically the flip flopping of who loves who, who hates who and who betrays who. I was intrigued the first time when Prince Bo betrays Zhaixing, when she gets captured and he reveals who he really is but then the second part of the drama fell a bit flat for me. The sudden change in Zhaixing's personality was another thing I didn't really appreciate. I know she was led to believe that Prince Bo killed her family and then the identify reveal that she is actually a Princess of Jin, so much happening that it would change someone but I felt the whole persona of her being cold and ruthless like Prince Bo was a bit extreme - if that's not who you are, that's not who you are. 

I also HATED the fact that Ji Chong (Xiao Zhan) was the guy that gave everything and got nothing, he even ended up marrying Zhaixing FFS and even then he didn't get the girl. Or maybe I just had massive second lead syndrome. I've read a few reviews of people saying Xiao Zhan saved the drama and I sort of agree, if his character wasn't there, this would've just been a huge mess of these 2 people constantly hating and then loving each other. 

I will say the music in this drama was ON POINT, the OST is great - was definitely one of the best things about this drama, plot aside.

That Ending... *MAJOR SPOILERS*

I never actually expected that Zhaixing would die tbh, I knew Prince Bo was dying but the ending that Zhaixing wanted Prince Bo to be locked up and she sacrificed herself so that Prince Bo could live out his remaining 6 months was quite touching. I actually teared up at the scene where she dies in Prince Bo's arms and then Ji Chong arrives and sees that she's dead, then Prince Bo carries her off in the rain.

One thing I have struggled to find the answer for is why and how did Zhaixing get poisoned?? In episode 48 it was revealed that she had black blood like Prince Bo so meaning she got poisoned and was dying (therefore happy to sacrifice herself instead of Prince Bo as she had less time to live than he does). Did Prince Bo infect her somehow with his poison? I've been trying to find out online but haven't had any answers so if anyone knows, please tell! Someone said it was passed on as an STI which I lol'd at.

I'm happy that Ji Chong finally found love (I hope!) with Princess Bo Na, most of the time I would find someone like Bo Na extremely annoying - which I did at the start when she was a rival for Zhaixing for Prince Bo's love - but I actually ended up adoring her! She's young, naive and uses her brother for power and permission but I love that she is 100% out there for her friends and people she cares about and would be willing to do anything to help them. It was definitely heart warming at the end when Ji Chong returned the amber to her saying it saved his life and then asked Bo Na to travel the world with him, which is what he wanted to do with Zhaixing, basically meaning that he has accepted Bo Na as the woman for him.

I'm disappointed that it wasn't a happier ending for Prince Bo and Zhaixing and it's also ambiguous what actually happened to Prince Bo. The 6 months later ending scene was narrated by Prince Xun who ascended the throne as the new king and he said something along the lines of Prince Bo was never seen again after he carried Zhaixing off. Then he said something about not long after he "followed" her, which I thought he meant he died as well and makes sense given that he only had 6 months to live following. But... the final scene shows Prince Bo reaching for a butterfly in some meadow setting - is he alive or not? Typical ambiguous, open-to-interpretation type of ending for a Chinese drama. 

Overall, it was a good drama, it wasn't terrible and I made it through - it's a 7/10 for me. 

C-Drama Review: Legend of Dugu

It's like a new c-drama each week for me recently because I've been so bored during lockdown and my new job doesn't start until next week. Long story short, I've had a break from working in general in start of December so I've been powering through dramas LOL.

If you're familiar with many historical c-dramas, Legend of Dugu is one of those chasing-after-the-throne-plot dramas. In a nutshell, it's about a family with the Dugu name having a prophecy that they will one day rule the world, it's about wives of the Dugu family helping their husbands get the throne but peppered with lots of complicated romances and couples that are in love with one another at the beginning of the drama, never getting the chance to actually end up with each other due to fate.

It's actually based on real historical events, the Dugu sisters were real and it's set in the times of the Northern and Southern dynasties. I actually love dramas like this that are based on true historical events, I end up googling so much afterwards and end up down a rabbit hole understanding what happened to everyone according to historical records #nerd.

Anyway, my thoughts on the drama...

*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

The plot was great, I love especially how the drama plays out everyone's characters from when they were young to when they're older, when they have kids etc and then you see some of the lives of the kids too and how they play into the overall plot. It had a really good balance of serious power struggles to sweet romances.

The story was super heavy at the beginning on the relationship and power struggle between Yuwen Yu, Yuwen Hu and Dugu Banrou and their crazy love triangle. Then the story switches to focus on the relationship (less power struggle, more romantic rivalry) between Yuwen Yong, Yang Jian and Dugu Jialuo. In between you have the trouble-maker middle sister Dugu Mantou causing all kinds of havoc because she's just jealous of just about everyone and everything in this entire drama. Then towards the end it's more focused on power and the new emperor rather than any kind of romance.

I must admit although I enjoyed this drama, there were some parts that I just couldn't let go of in terms of how ridiculous it was portrayed, maybe in real historical records, it happened like this, I don't know but to me, it was just pure ridiculousness. I'm going to list out areas where I thought the story was really stupid all based on my opinion of course but I'm sure I'm not the only one...

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Mantou being suddenly pregnant even though her relationship with her husband fell bad many years ago - seriously, I think this has to be the dumbest part of the plot. To have a baby, you need to have sex, if you’ve fallen out badly with your husband for years, how did this baby get conceived? And no, Mantou was definitely not romantically linked with anyone else in this drama at this point that we were made aware of. I actually thought her aunt was trolling her when she told her she’s pregnant to keep her in check but it turns out this Mantou popped out twins. What’s even more annoying is that she had girl boy twins and the girl has now disappeared from the drama entirely as if she only had the boy. What did she do? Chuck the girl twin away in a river? Boil her and eat her? Aliens abducted her? That scene wasn’t meant to happen?

Yuwen Hu’s death - OK this one probably annoyed me as much as Mantou’s pregnancy. This guy died way too simply and early on for someone that is the main antagonist of the drama, with supposedly high ambitions. He fell for Yuwen Yong’s trap completely and easily for someone that’s supposed to be cunning and then somehow got killed by arrows and his Ge Shu was also killed when he went to save him. This plot / scene was no red wedding scene (GoT reference to one of the craziest assassination scenes in TV history) but it was just so... non-dramatic. Let me tell you that trap was no elaborate trap either, it was just him taking him to see his mother to read out some poem and then he gets stabbed by Yuwen Yong, then shot to pieces. Now I get that he was upset and still a bit stunned to learn that the daughter he had with Banrou was still alive but yeah, makes so sense how someone that has been presented as so clever and cunning can be taken out like that.

Yang Jian being forever 30 years old - now this one, I’m hoping is just a bad translation. If I went back to really listen to it maybe I could work it out, but Yang Jian claimed he was 30 years old before the time skip then in episode 50, then the time skip happened where we see Lihua and the other kids grow up and there’s this scene where Yang Jian comes back from fighting Qi and Yuwen Yong wanted to promote him to Pillar of State and he tries to reject it saying he’s just 30 years old LOL. I’m hoping it meant 40 because if he’s still 30, he must have been a father at 15 or something.

...and this one just because I hate Dugu Mantou SO MUCH

Mantou always making a reappearance like some bad rash - now this woman... I have no words, she just keeps coming back time and time again and never lets go of her revenge even though she almost got made into a nun at one point. She fails every single time she tries to destroy other people because someone catches her out but still tries to harm Jialuo and Yang Jian and others EVERY DAMN TIME. Honestly, this woman doesn't die until the last 5 minutes of the final episode LOL. If you thought Yuwen Hu was the main villain, think again.

Overall, I can safely say that I enjoyed this drama. I didn't love it when I compare it to Love and Redemption but I definitely found it interesting to learn about the whole Dugu prophecy and how it turned these people crazy back in the day with the desire to rule the world. The power struggles were mostly interesting to watch, the cast were perfect for their roles, production value was pretty decent for a Chinese drama, costumes and scenery were stunning, Hu Bing Qing needs to be in more dramas because she is just so beautiful.

I think I'd give this drama a 7.5/10, enjoyable and worth watching but not the best c-drama I've seen.